The Lives Of 1 In 3 Aussie Men Would Be Very Different If We Didn't Have Safe Abortion

It's time to get woke, bae.

POTUS Donald Trump joined by men, signs an order to reinstate Reagan’s ‘Global Gag Rule' which bars international health organisations that receive U.S. funding from mentioning abortion as a family planning option. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Trump's executive order barring foreign aid from going to any organisation that even discusses abortion, or family planning, hurts women. In fact, it kills them.

Any thinking person knows that it's not just the lives of women in developing countries whose world got a little darker yesterday, but women everywhere.

As the image of men stripping away a woman's right to her own body made the rounds on social media it was met with an overwhelming sense of outrage followed by deep sadness. In 2017, the world's most vulnerable women are losing rights, not gaining them.

It was my own friends who shared it, here in Australia, that got me thinking about the difference this vital procedure has made to so many people's lives.

As long as you live you'll never see a photograph of 7 women signing legislation about what men can do with their reproductive organs pic.twitter.com/dXjfVjnRiX

These women don't hate babies. Many of them cannot wait to become a mother. But they make this tough decision because they know that right now, they cannot be the best mother. Or that their partner, if he is around, is not ready to become a Dad.

There are so many reasons for an abortion. Nobody is saying you have to agree with them. Don't believe in it, don't get one. What needs to be said, though, screamed in fact, by women and men, is that every woman deserves the choice. For millions of women, that choice has now been taken.

Abortion is not a woman's issue. It is a health issue. And while it's easy to sit back and be outraged by one of Trump's many backward decisions, it's worth looking at our own backyard where abortion is still technically illegal in two states.